Its harsh policy toward asylum seekers betrays the human-rights values it should stand for

Over the past six months I have watched in muffled horror as my country, Australia, voted in and then loudly applauded a government that has put into play a policy to stop asylum seekers from landing uninvited on our shores. The Regional Resettlement Arrangement (RRA) was introduced by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in a cynical last-ditch effort to hold on to power before he was defeated in a landslide in September’s general elections. …